AirAsia Now Accepting American Express

AirAsia has dramatically expanded its potential
customer base by now accepting American Express for bookings made
online, through AirAsia Call Centres and sales counters.

The partnership is expected to grow inbound and
outbound travel by attracting high-spending American Express
Cardmembers to fly with AirAsia.

AirAsia is supporting the partnership by also
extending its popular low fares to American Express Cardholders.
Flights from Kuala Lumpur are as low as RM5 to Singapore, RM25 to
Kuching and Bangkok, RM45 to Jakarta, RM500 to Tianjin (Beijing)
and Perth, RM800 to Melbourne and Gold Coast, and RM1,500 to
London. These fares are valid for bookings made before May 3, 2009
for travel between July 1 and November 30, 2009.

American Express is a recognized global
leader of travel and payment services, with a presence in over 140
countries and products accepted by millions of merchants in over
200 countries and territories.

“AirAsia is pleased to offer 5-star service for
low fares to a previously under-tapped market segment, American
Express Cardmembers. We saw a 21% year-on-year increase in our
passenger volume for the first quarter of this year, when we flew
3.1 million guests. We are confident that this number will grow
now that American Express Cardmembers are able to easily book
seats with us. We increased seat capacity by 25% in the last
quarter, and we are well positioned to cater to more guests.
Anticipating American Express Cardmembers’ enthusiasm to fly with
us, we will be serving more high-spending guests, including more
business executives,” said Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO.

Kula Kulendran, Senior Vice President, Head of
Global Network Services, Japan, Asia Pacific & Australia, American
Express said, “American Express has been continuously pursuing an
airline partnership strategy in key markets around the world to
help enhance our partners’ product offerings. The partnership with
AirAsia and Maybank leverages American Express’ leadership
position and heritage in both corporate travel and premium
consumer segments. American Express Cardmembers are sophisticated
travelers who look for travel services with value for money,
convenience and efficiency.”

American Express purchases through mobile phones
at mobile.airasia.com will be enabled over the next few weeks.
Worldwide American Express Cardmembers can now purchase tickets
from any origin to any destination using AirAsia Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand websites. Market websites for Australia,
India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are to be
American Express enabled over the coming weeks, followed by rest
of the markets.